Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 15.djvu/40



32 JUDGE WILLIAM C. BROWN

the region of the upper Snake river. Fremont also discusses the western limit of the buffalo range, and puts it well west into Idaho. From that section there are no natural barriers which would have prevented the species from spreading to any and all parts of old Oregon east of the Cascade range, and my theory is that the buffaloes were in the process of so doing and had found their way, at least in small numbers, as far as the Big Bend country of Eastern Washington, when the Indians began acquiring horses which enabled them to efficiently hunt the few and meager herds, with the result that the buffaloes were exterminated along the Columbia before they had reached sufficient numbers to maintain them- selves against the numerous mounted Indians that began to set upon them. Had fate denied the Columbian Indian horses for another century, it is possible that the great buffalo range would have extended over the bunch grass plains of this latitude between the Cascades and the Rockies, quite the same as it did east of those mountains. This, of course, goes far into the realm of speculation, but there is much in Indian fable and tradition to support it, and it is not inconsistent with known historical facts.

The Indians must have been telling the same story in the days of Ross Cox, for he says this in his book : "The Indians allege that buffaloes were formerly numerous about the plains, and assert that remains of these animals are still found" (page 228). The "plains" referred to being the Palouse, Big Bend and Spokane countries.

The geographical nomenclature of the old days is inter- esting. "Okanogan Point" was the big flat at the junction of the Okanogan with the Columbia. A fine view of this flat is now to be had close at hand from the Great Northern trains, and the place where the original Astor post was built, and also the place where the later Ft. Okanogan stood so long can be plainly seen. "Okanogan Forks" was the junction of the Similkameen with the Okanogan. It is where Oroville now stands. Aeneas valley, Aeneas creek, Aeneas moun- tains, etc., of the present day government maps and quad-